Duterte studying proposed MGCQ for entire country

BY GENALYN KABILING

President Duterte is studying the proposal to place the entire country under the least restrictive quarantine level by March as part of further reopening the economy, Malacañang said Tuesday.

The President is also expected to discuss the recommendations made by the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) to ease movement restrictions in a meeting with the Cabinet next Monday, according to his spokesman Harry Roque.

Among the NEDA recommendations are relaxing of the age restrictions of people allowed to go out of homes, expansion of public transportation operations, and conduct of pilot face-to-face classes in areas with low risk of coronavirus infection.

Such recommendations have already earned the approval of the Inter-agency Task Force for the Management of Infectious Diseases (IATF), composed of several Cabinet members.

“Rekomendasyon pa lamang ito. Pinag-aaralang mabuti ng Pangulo ang rekomendasyon na ito,” Roque said during a televised press briefing.

“Ang sabi niya nais niyang ito ay mapag-usapan sa susunod na Cabinet meeting sa ika-22 ng buwan na ito,” he added.

Roque said the government task force supports the NEDA recommendations to further open the economy in a bid to save people from hunger and poverty during the pandemic.

He noted that NEDA study showed more people are affected by hunger, poverty, and deaths from other diseases, compared to those affected by the coronavirus illness.

Citing a NEDA report, he said the country now has an additional 23.7 million hungry people, 4.5 million poor, and 2.7 million unemployed since the start of the pandemic last year.

Around 480, 338 have died due to other illnesses from January to November 2020.

In terms of COVID-19 cases, Roque said the country has recorded more than 550,000 cases of infection with more than 11,500 deaths.

In a meeting with the President on Monday, Chua asked the President to approve the NEDA recommendation to place the country under MGCQ starting March 1, 2021 to balance the opening of the economy and the control of the coronavirus.

He said localized lockdown could instead be implemented at the village or municipal level to curb any spread of the illness.

Metro Manila, epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak, remains under general community quarantine this month.

Other areas under GCQ are Cordillera Administrative Region, Batangas, Tacloban City, Iligan City, Davao del Norte, Davao City, and Lanao del Sur.

The rest of the country stayed under the most relaxed MGCQ.